When next year’s crop of high-school graduates arrive at Oxford University in the fall of 2009, they’ll be joined by a new face: Andrew Hamilton, the 55-year-old provost(教务长) of Yale, who’ll become Oxford’s vice-chancellor——a position equal to university president in America.
Hamilton isn’t the only educator crossing the Atlantic. Schools in France, Egypt, Singapore, etc. have also recently made top-level hires from abroad. Higher education has become a big and competitive business nowadays, and like so many businesses, it’s gone global. Yet the talent flow isn’t universal. High-level personnel(人员) tend to head in only one direction: outward from America.
The chief reason is that American schools don’t tend to seriously consider looking abroad. For example, when the board of the University of Colorado searched for a new president, it wanted a leader familiar with the state government, a major source of the university’s budget. “We didn’t do any global consideration,” says Patricia Hayes, the board’s chair. The board finally picked Bruce Benson, a 69-year-old Colorado businessman and political activist(活动家) who is likely to do well in the main task of modern university presidents: fund-raising. Fund-raising is a particularlly American thing, since U.S. schools rely heavily on donations. The fund-raising ability is largely a product of experience and necessity.
Many European universities, meanwhile, are still mostly dependent on government funding. But government support has failed to keep pace with rising student numbers. The decline in government support has made fund-raising an increasingly necessary ability among administrators (管理人员), and has hiring committees hungry for Americans.
In the past few years, well-known schools around the world have joined the trend. In 2003, when Cambridge University appointed Alison Richard, another former Yale provost, as its vice-chancellor, the university publicly stressed that in her previous job she had overseen “a major strengthening of Yale’s financial position.”
Of course, fund-raising isn’t the only skill outsiders offer. The globalization of education means more universities will be seeking heads with international experience of some kind to promote international programs and attract a global student body. Foreigners can offer a fresh perspective(视角) on established practices.
小题1:What is the current trend in higher education discussed in the passage?
| A．Institution worldwide are hiring administrators from the US. |
| B．A lot of activists are being hired as administrators |
| C．American universities are enrolling more international students. |
| D．University presidents are paying more attention to funding-raising. |
小题2: What is the chief consideration of American universities when hiring top-level administrators?
| A．The political correctness. | B．Their ability to raise funds. |
| C．Their fame in academic circles. | D．Their administrative experience. |
小题3: What do we learn about European universities from the passage?
A．The tuitions(学费) they charge h  ave been rising considerably. |
| B．Their operation is under strict government control. |
| C．They are strengthening their position by globalization. |
| D．Most of their money comes from the government. |
小题4:In what way do top-level administrators from abroad contribute to university development?
| A．They can improve the university’s image. |
| B．They will bring with them more international personnel. |
| C．They will view a lot of things from a new angle. |
| D．They can set up new academic subjects. |
小题5:Which of the following would make the best title of the passage?
| A．Higher Education Globalization | B．Global Headhunting In Higher Education |
| C．Global Higher Education Cooperation | D．Universal Higher Education Development |
